Time Is Running Out

Oliver

As soon as it was out in the open that Lya was training, she threw herself into it wholeheartedly. The meeting with the gammas had not helped the matter. It seemed her suitability being questioned only fueled her commitment. Cody had integrated her in with the second year recruits, and she was holding her own easily. I still didn’t like the fact that she was training, and somehow received a ban from the Luna herself not to set foot on the training grounds while she was there. She was making quite a name for herself already, and only snippets of her performance were being passed on to me.

With her spending all day training, that just meant I saw her less and less. I tried to convince her it was a matter that could be dealt with once the impending battle was over. Or maybe she could join the first years when a new group started in August. Cody wasn’t helping, either, and she had gotten her claws and command into him before I could, so he was obligated to follow her word over mine. Realistically, hers was not a proper command, but Adair wouldn’t even let me muster one to override her.

I had to get used to spending days without her, anyway. This was what life would be like when everything calmed down. It’d be easier once my mark was on her neck, though.

“I don’t see why you don’t just march over there and see what’s going on for yourself,” Brandon sighed. He, along with the other gammas from out of town, were sticking around to brush up on training under the eye of Cody in preparation for what next week held. With Cody and Thom preoccupied with training my mate, and Trevor wrapped up with his own, Brandon was the only one of my circle typically around.

I shot Brandon a glare. “I can’t.”

“Aw, c’mon,” he laughed. “She’ll be upset for a bit, but she’ll get over it.”

“No, Brandon, I really can’t,” I huffed. “She figured out a command.”

Brandon’s lighthearted expression quickly fell away to a puzzled look. “But she can’t do that yet - she isn’t even pack yet, right?”

“Her dad is an alpha,” I reminded him.

Brandon shook his head. “Cody insisted that isn’t how the Wulver Pack works - she wouldn’t be able to do that.”

“Well then maybe it’s because she’s my fated mate, not chosen.” I sat back with a huff, trying to get a bit of control of my frustration.

“And Derek doubted the Moon Goddess’s command,” he chuckled. “Maybe you need to quit with those temporary marks. Just get it over with and mark her.”

I stood up and made my way over to the decanter sitting by the couch. That thing had been utilized much too frequently recently. “I’ll get to it.”

“Have you two still not talked to each other about that yet?” he asked. “Dude, you were sunshine and daisies after you found her. Now you’re starting to get dark and broody again. Just man up, will ya?”

I slung the glass back, draining it before speaking. “I have hunters threatening my pack and my mate. I’ll deal with it after that. Besides, I can’t have her going into heat now.”

“Fair point.” Brandon retrieved a glass for himself and settled in on the couch. “You’re just getting mean again. You two could at the very least have a conversation and get on the same page.”

“Easier said than done.”

Brandon seemed to have the easiest time of my friends determining when he was talking to his friend versus his alpha. He always knew when to back down, whereas Trevor and Cody would continue to push. It surprised me when he continued to talk on this particular subject.

“The longer you wait, the more time you are losing with her,” he pointed out.

I turned away, not willing to admit he was right. “I can’t do this right now, I have a war to plan.”

“I don’t even get why you’re stressing so much,” he said. “If everything goes well, you’ll be back in time for dinner that night. Pop out there, off a handful of hunters, back home to mark your mate.”

“You don’t know that,” I snapped. Every fiber of my being was anticipating for things to go wildly awry.

“Fine, fine,” he huffed, standing up. “Mates change people, man. And I’m beginning to think it isn’t always for the better.”

The words cut, but he was right. Lya and I deserved an award for how well we were ignoring the elephant in the room. She seemed to be coming out on top, though. None of this seemed to be bothering her at all. Maybe she still couldn’t feel the mate bond yet? My hand went up to the mark on my neck. Her wolf knew, at least.

The door clicked closed behind Brandon, leaving me alone with my thoughts. Even my wolf wasn’t around to talk to, not that he would provide any words of encouragement, he would have agreed with Brandon. Hell, I agreed with Brandon.

Silence was my enemy. It provided too much time to think. Without the interruption of my wolf, my mind drifted to problems. I had been lucky these past eight years - in all my time running the pack, problems were small. The largest issues we ever dealt with were ones other packs roped us into. Those, I had the option to pull out if it put my pack in too much danger. Now, though? Retreat was not an option.

To retreat would be to turn my back on my mate. With all I had already lost, she was the one thing I would not let slip through my fingers.

I looked up to the clock, desperately hoping enough time had passed. 5:00 pm. I breathed out a sigh. Lya should be wrapped up with training, meaning she was all mine for the rest of the night. I beelined for the door, not even giving my desk filled with paperwork in need of attention a second glance.

“What do you want?” I huffed, catching sight of Cody making his way down the hall.

“Time’s up, Alpha.”

My shoulders slumped. He didn’t need to clarify anything. Eight days had already passed since our first strategy meeting. “Two weeks was wishful thinking, wasn’t it?”

Cody clapped me on the shoulder, offering a somber smile. “We gotta roll out the day after tomorrow. The number of hunters that have shown up, it’ll be conspicuous if we don’t make a move soon. They’ll know it’s a setup.”

“We were supposed to have more time.”

I didn't feel like an alpha right now. I felt pathetic and weak, begging to have back the very thing I hadn’t been utilizing. In the grand scheme of things, hunters didn’t scare us. Just a couple here and there were the sort of things we classified as controlled encounters, barely worth reporting. A large group of them together at once? We truly didn’t know what we were walking into. The Marsans weren’t your typical hunter, either.

If Thom and Cody were right, they didn’t even care about the pack. They wanted the lost Wulver. If even one of them got through and they were able to track us back, that put her at too much risk. I didn’t think my mind would be completely on the battlefield when she was staying at the pack, either. I had thirty-six more hours - maybe that was enough time to convince her to let me mark her. I’d be more at peace if I could keep tabs on how she was doing.

I caught sight of my little spitfire, engrossed in the conversation she, Rose, and Trevor were caught up in. Her smile was more commonplace the past couple weeks, shining through more and more with each crack to her walls.

Amber eyes fell on me, a mischievous glint calling back the wolf I had been searching all day for. She turned her back to her friends, stepping toward the treeline. She afforded me one last taunting glance over her shoulder before shifting quickly and dashing off.

I was frozen in place, hypnotized by the sea of red fur. But Adair quickly surged forward, the large black wolf quickly closing the space between him and his mate.